Rambo

Engrossing action thriller about John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone), a Vietnam vet and Medal of Honor recipient, who is now a drifter haunted by his experiences in the war. While traveling through a small town in Washington, Rambo is arrested by Sheriff Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) for being a vagrant. When a sadistic deputy abuses Rambo, he lashes out violently and escapes custody, fleeing into the mountains. As a manhunt is underway to capture Rambo, his mentor and former commanding officer Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna) shows up to try and prevent a bloodbath.

Probably the best Stallone movie behind the first Rocky. Great action, yes, but also a terrific script and some really good performances that elevate this above so many other action movies. I've read David Morrell's original novel and I have to say this is a case where the movie adaptation is just superior in every way. In the book, the Teasle character is more of the good guy and Rambo is a psycho killer that has to be put down like a dog. So kudos to Michael Kozoll, William Sackheim, and Sylvester Stallone for making the changes they did to the plot and for all the quotable lines their script gives us. As for the acting, there isn't a bad note anywhere in this. Even the supporting players are excellent. Stallone and Dennehy knock it out of the park. Richard Crenna has arguably his most famous role here as Colonel Trautman. He gets many of the best lines.

Great score from Jerry Goldsmith with a memorable theme song. Ted Kotcheff's direction is solid. The action is fantastic but, as I said, it's so much more than just a popcorn movie. It has something to say about the Vietnam war and how the soldiers were treated when they returned home. This won't sit well with all types but I appreciate what they were going for here and thought they did very well with it. Had there never been another Rambo movie, this one would still be a classic. But there were more sequels to come, all action movies of varying degrees of quality but none quite as good as this one.

John Rambo (BAFTA winner Sylvester Stallone) is a fairly reserved and sensitive guy, a man who has seen and lived the horrors of the Vietnam War. He returns to the good old United States of America to find his only friend has died. You can sympathise with him and when small- town sheriff (Brian Dennehy) takes a needless dislike to him and his heavy handed deputies mistreat Rambo you can see why Rambo is sent over the edge.

In retrospect, unfortunately the sequels turned John J Rambo into 'Rambo' the icon who relies more on an M-16 to get him out of trouble. In First Blood Rambo utilises the teachings from Col. Trautman (Richard Crenna) his war training and combat skills to stay alive and outwit his pursuers.

With less guns and explosions director Ted Kotcheff competently builds the tension and suspense and you get the feeling Rambo may not make it till the end. The locations are wonderfully atmospheric - foggy, earthly capturing the true outdoors. Stallone, Crenna and Dennehy are on form and the movie has a strong supporting cast that includes David Caruso in an early role as Deputy Mitch. Underpinning all this is Jerry Goldsmith's memorable score.

Rambo First Blood is a grounded drama and action must see.

Sylvester Stallone achieved amazing heights during the 80's, along with Arnold Schwarzenegger, especially as a movie character synonymous with the muscled guy who is a pure fighting machine…

In Ted Kotcheff's "First Blood," John Rambo (Stallone) is a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who was trained specifically as a killing machine… He has come to a quite little town in Oregon, only to visit one of his platoon buddies… He was told that his friend has died, last summer, of cancer…

Disheartened, Rambo continues to walk the streets of Hope when he is annoyed by the local Sheriff (Brian Dennehy), and booked for vagrancy and resisting arrest…

Beaten, kicked all over, treated like trash, and pushed too far by the other cops in the Sheriff's office, Rambo is taking back to traumatic flashbacks, to the enduring torture in POW camp… Rambo, by that point, fights his way out and wages a one-man war against the police force that escalates out of control... Rambo is seen as a one man army overpowering all the sheriff's deputies and escaping into the surrounding woods…

"First Blood" communicates the rage, the depression, the frustration and the psychological wounds of one Vietnam soldier that fought for his country and was then hassled by it upon his return…

But what makes Rambo such a dangerous hero is Brian Dennehy being incredibly efficient as the cruel officer who doesn't like the looks of Stallone... Sure he's the abusive sheriff who is the victim of his environment, but he's also arrogant and incessantly underestimating a man who was 'the best, with guns, with knives, with his bare hands…'

Dennehy got a presence of his own pushing an 'expert in guerrilla warfare' at the breaking point

The adaptation of this novel to the big screen is a great accomplishment. The film is not only the beginning of one of the greatest action trilogies of all-time, but it charts the developments of its characters, something rarely done by an action movie. "First Blood" is a moving story about the realities of post-Vietnam America and is very underrated as a film.

This is a truly unique movie that quickly became obscured due to the later sequels. It tells the story of a man who survived one hell, only to return home despised and forsaken because of it. There was a time when America didn't quite know what to think of the lost war, and so it was forgotten - and the men who came out of it as well. Rambo finds he cannot survive this war, because it is still going on within him.

Finally, pushed too far by a small town sheriff, Rambo returns to the only thing he can relate to. War. Yet it is a war he almost mercifully wages on the macho egotistical deputies and week end warriors that pursue. To potentially misquote Rambo :

"I coulda killed them all, I could have killed you. In town you're the law, out here it's me. Let it go..."